Tag: update

It is time for my monthly writing update. January was a month of regaining momentum. After writing the first draft of a novel in November, I spent much of December mostly avoiding writing. With the new year I’ve been slowly easing back into my writing projects.

Writing Group

Earlier this month the writing critique group at Village Books here in Bellingham read the first chapter of my current novel in progress. I received some awesome feedback that I put into immediate action.

Last month I’d mentioned another group I was going to check out. For now, I’ve decided against this. They sound like a wonderful group, but I only have so many days a month to devote to meeting with writing groups. The Village Books group meets twice a month, which means about 28,000 words of fiction I am reading and critiquing every month for others. This takes up a sizeable chunk of time and, thus, do not want to add another group I’d have to read for. At least for now.

Writing Projects

As noted above, my writing momentum is slowly building back up. I am still trudging away on my novel. Currently I’m writing chapter 12 while simultaneously going back and revising the early chapters for the Village Books critique group. Someday I will finish this book. It won’t be anytime soon, and I’m okay with that.

I’m also attempting to brainstorm some new short story ideas. I’ve got a few cooking in the brain pan. I’m hoping to soon transition my Patreon content from chapters of a novel to different short stories or a long running serial. I’m still planning that out. Once I get those ducks in a row I want to do a new drive to collect a slew of patrons. The money I make on Patreon pretty much goes towards paying off student loans for the time being.

In other news, I’m thinking about setting up a newsletter for my monthly writerly updates. So be on the lookout for that. And, as always, if you like what you see here and would like to support my creative itch, be sure to support me on Patreon. For as little as $1 a month you can live the dream of supporting art in the making. For $2 or more you will get a brand spankin new chunk of fiction from me every month. For February it is Chapters 1 thru 6 of my current novel in progress: Shadows Beneath Us.

New Groups

Since last time I’ve joined a little writer group. Once or twice a week we get together and just write. It’s a wonderful group of fun writer folks, most of whom I met going to write-ins during NaNoWriMo.

I’m thinking about trying out another local writer workshop group as well. I like the workshop group I already attend at the local independent book store, but this new one is more focused on genre fiction, and may be a better fit for me. Next month I’ll fill you in on how it went.

Also, the workshop group I’m currently in is reading chapter 1 of my current horror novel in progress this month. I’m looking forward to getting some feedback from other local writerly types.

So, if you’d like to support my writing, that is still the best way to do so. With a $2/month pledge you get a new chapter or short story emailed to you every month. The money I make from Patreon, after paying a couple artists I follow on Patreon, all goes towards paying the bills.

Current Projects

I’ve got a couple writing projects I’m tackling this month. The first is a short story. If you are a Patron of mine, you received a version of it in your email on January 1st. It’s about a book that knows what you want. There are also gardening of sheep-like plants and wolves involved. I want to get this story ready for submission to professional magazines.

My other project is the horror novel I’ve been working on for years. I want to get the first draft done. Like all the way done. And I want to do this within the next few months. Last week I sat down and jotted down all of my ideas for scenes for the rest of the novel. I still think I’m missing major swathes of the story, but I have something to work from now. Wish me luck!

As always, thank you for reading my blog. Are there any writing projects you are currently working on? Do you need a little help or just need someone to bounce ideas off of? Feel free to contact me if so. I love talking to fellow writers.

NaNoWriMo Victory!

I just finished spending the month of November slinging out 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’d attempted this twice already in the past, and failed both times. This time, I pushed through and crossed the 50k mark on the last day. Please gaze upon my amazing chart of word progress.

Now I have to dig in and revise this 50k steaming pile of hastily slung words. Having finished a NaNoWriMo, I’m still trying decide if quantity is better than quality. I had quite a few days during November where I felt like I’d put a bullet in the head of quality and wrapped its body in plastic before driving over the state line with it in my trunk. But, oh well. At least I have a chunk of raw material to work with.

If anything, I hope that I’ve developed a better, more consistent, habit of writing. I want to use the momentum I’ve gathered to finish some other projects.

Not NaNo Writing Projects!

Now that NaNo is over, I can turn my focus back to my preexisting writing projects.

I’m still working on my Shadow novel, and publishing the chapters each month on my Patreon. I would love to finish the first draft of the full novel in order to move on to a new big project.

(Speaking of Patreon, you should definitely check out my page. For $2 a month you get a brand new chapter of my horror novel in progress, Shadows, delivered directly to you. It is a novel about an heir to a drug cartel who is fighting a rising evil trying to escape the world beneath our shadows.)

I’ve also got a short story I need to polish up. It’s been through a few rounds of revision. I need to address the last round of comments, then put it through a rigorous editor, and then start submitting it to magazines for publication.

It’s an awesome feeling so close to done with a project, even thought it’s just a short story.

Writing Groups

As for writing groups, I’m still attempting to find a critique group that is just the right fit for me. So far, I’m involved in a large one at a local book store. It’s a wonderful group, and I will continue to attend and submit. Though, I’ll only be read at that group about once every other month.

There is one other I’d like to check out, but their meeting night keeps conflicting with other items on my calendar. I’m hoping that next month I’ll be able to sit in on their group for the first time. I’d like to get a feel for how the group flows and functions before I submit my own work.

Wrap Up

And that is all for this month. My writing progress has gotten exciting, and I want to ride the high of the NaNoWriMo success for as long as possible.

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every year, on this month, writers from across the globe all make an attempt at writing their own 50,000 word novel. It’s insane.

I’m going to be a bit of a rebel though. Instead of writing a novel, I’m going to write 50,000 words worth of short stories.

Here are the stories I have in mind:

‘Hunting Club’ : A man becomes rich when he sells his condo in a town that once was dying but now is bustling. He uses the money to visit Ireland where he joins a secret hunting club. They own a large walled in area where members hunt a mysterious creature that takes the form of whatever the hunter desires to kill.

‘The Pestering’: The last man on earth, known as the Miyagi man (he’s obsessed with the original Karate Kid movie), attempts to fend off the poking claws that rip through from another dimension. These claws have have already poked the rest of humanity to death.

‘Rotweiler’: After getting his VHS player repaired, a man is confronted by a talking dog.

‘Arsonist Soul Collector’: A college student, desperate for money responds to a strange online want ad.

‘Travellers’: Two addicts discover that they can pass into another world through each other’s shadows. But they can only do this when high on their new drug of choice.

We’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping to come out of this with a set of rough drafts I can meld and hammer into polished stories.

Other Writing News

In other news, a few days ago I published chapter 4 of my horror novel on my Patreon. So, be sure to become a Patron today so you can catch up with the story.

Once I get 10 Patrons I’ll make an embarrassing YouTube video of me talking about myself and my writing.

You know you want to see me turn colors on camera.

And, after I get 25 Patrons, I will start recording myself reading each month’s chapter or short story.

I’m currently writing chapter 11 and quickly approaching the end of book 1 of, what will become, a trilogy. Anyone who has been a patron for at least 4 months, once I finish the book, will get a fancy ebook copy. If there’s demand, I’ll work out having physical prints made as well.

Closing

Happy Halloween! You may not think it is Halloween, and you are mistaken. This is the month of Halloween. This whole month is for spooky, creepy, and scary things. This is the time of year when everyone watches their favorite horror movies through parted fingers. I love it.

Writing Update

But this isn’t a post about Halloween. (There will be a special post for that later in the month.) This is the first of my monthly writing updates.

This month I am working on a rewrite of a short story I through together earlier this year. I sent it off to beta readers a few days ago. It is an awesome feeling the burden of progress for that project out of my hands, at least for a little while.

I’m also still trucking along on my horror novel. Chapters 1 through 3 are officially posted and live on my Patreon, for my $2 and up Patrons. I’ll have chapter 4 revised and ready for you by the end of the month. I’m finishing up the first draft of chapter 8 as well. Here’s something exciting though: yesterday, while writing on my lunch break made it over 40,000 words! It has taken a long time to get to this point, but I do feel my pace quickening. Having paying folks waiting every month for the next chunk is definitely keeping my butt in the chair and hands on the keyboard.

NaNoWriMo

If you are not part of the nerdy writer crowd on the internet, you probably didn’t know that next month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). Every year in November people across the world each crank out a 50,000 word novel. This is a meteoric feat to accomplish. I’ve tried it twice in the past, and both times have failed to meet the lofty goal. This year I’m giving it another go.

This time, I’m not doing a novel though. I’m keeping it loose, and I’m going to write 50,000 words of short stories. I don’t know how many stories this will be. I figured I would just write each one until each is done then move on to the next. I’ve got a few different ideas jotted down.

Which reminds me. I’ve got another idea to take note of.

Closing

I think that’s all for this month. Stay tuned on the blog for Joe’s Photo of the Week every week as well as a new series detailing my adventure in re-reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series all over again.

Well, I just learned a very hard lesson. All of this time I’ve never bothered to make a backup of my site before installing updates. And, finally, it happened. Something broke during an update. Luckily, I have my site set up to backup automatically once month. So, I didn’t lose everything. But I did lose over 2 weeks of posts.

So, over the next few weeks I will be rewriting some of those, now gone, posts.

I think I’ve learned my lesson though. From now on, I will always make a fresh backup before installing anything.

Share my stories with you

Patreon is a platform that allows you, the reader, to support content that you like.

For only $2 a month you will get to read a new chapter of my current novel or a short story every single month.

Once I get a few more patrons I’ll record a little intro video of myself talking and stuff. (I’m a bit terrified of being in front of the camera, than alone in front of a video camera, so this is a big deal) So if you want to see my talking face talk about my writing on the internets head over to Patreon today and sign up!

Okay. So I want to write stories. I want people to read my stories. But for that to happen I actually have to sit down and write the stories. This is a ridiculously difficult thing to do. I’ve been working, on and off, for the past two years on a novel. Also, I’m finishing up a couple different short stories.

This is what I need. I need a way to be held accountable and also a way to share these stories with others, to share these stories with you.

Enter Patreon

Patreon is a wonderful platform. It’s based after an old Medieval practice of families of power and money paying artists to produce their art for them. These medieval patrons gained prestige for seeking out the best artists for their personal court.

Fast foward to now, and Patreon has found a way to put this same system into place. But in this case you don’t have to house and clothe me to help me produce my art. So, you only have to pay me the amount of a coffee each month. And when you become a paying patron I will give you one short story or one chapter from my novel every month. For only $3 a month you would be pressuring me (in a good way) to get my butt in the chair and write!

And, once I finish a novel or write enough short stories for a collection, I will find someway to reward my loyal patrons. This may be a free digital copy of the text, or a steep discount on the physical copy. I may even toy with some other possible rewards. If you’re interested, please let me know what sort of things you would like.

What Sort of Stories?

What kind of stories should you expect from me? Well, if you like a nice and spooky story you’ll most likely like my writing. I tend to enjoy reading H. P. Lovecraft, Laird Barron, Shirley Jackson, Mark Z. Danielewski, etc. Consequently, I imagine that anything I write may be along the lines of those writers. So be sure to watch for the first chapter of my novel on August 1st. So, become a Patron, help to encourage my writing.

It has been a long time since I’ve posted anything to my website. (By this point it seems like an internet cliche, but it’s true.) But recently the itch to create and put out content has been growing, and that, along with a major address change has spurred me to action.

So, first big news is that I’ve moved back to the Pacific North West! My wife, son, and I really missed the weather up here. My wife loves the beaches, I love all of the beautiful landscape and hikes. The 20 degree temperature difference between here and back in Oklahoma is very nice as well.

The other news is I’m going to start posting on here weekly.

To shake things up a bit I’ve done a complete overhaul to my website and I’ve combined my photography website (JoeThePhotographyGuy.com) and my writing/blog site into one true source of total awesomeness.

My first regular series is going to be the Pacific North West photo of the Week. Each week on Monday I will post a favorite image of my new surroundings for you to enjoy.

I’m also planning on the occasional other photo posts, photography tutorials, and other random collections of my thoughts. (I welcome suggestions if there is any specific content you’d like to see.)

This is not just going to be a home for my photography though. This will also be the home for updates in my adventures in writing. I’m still working out what sort of content I will be posting along those lines. I will keep you updated.

I have one more big bit of news that I will share with you next time, so be sure to stay tuned…

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About This Site

Welcome to my home base on the internet. This space is the hub of all of my digital activities. Here you can find updates on my writings, photography tips and tricks along with images of my own, and the occasional technical post.